Tokyo bombing incident Nth time

"Please hurry! I could be killed at any moment!"

Of course, while ordinary people can't see themselves, they can see their companions being continuously eliminated (Yuri isn't sure if this devouring will result in complete annihilation or banishment back to the underworld). It wouldn't be surprising if they were targeted and killed someday, especially since there's nowhere to seek help... Even ghosts might not be able to withstand the pressure and might hastily disintegrate at any moment. At least, that's the case with the one in front of them.

"...There are one...two more questions. Why do you believe I would help you instead of harming you? What if I am another Devourer?" Yuri might not be able to sleep if he didn't get this question cleared up, although spirits are inherently sleepless.

"Oh right." Kang Ying looked as if she had never thought about this. "But since I'm still alive, it means I'm lucky?"

So you didn't even consider it at all!?

“Well, one last question—why isn’t your ghost life boring?” Yuri turned to leave. “It has nothing to do with whether I help you or not, but I’m curious.”

“Every day is a struggle for survival, not much different from when I was alive. How can I have the energy to worry about being bored?” Kang Ying became more and more agitated. “For me, who lost my ability to move and froze and starved to death alone, death is neither better nor worse than life. I must live on!”

This isn't meant as advice, but I'll mark it anyway. To avoid further provoking the other party, Yuri quickly left the alley.

Nothing unexpected happened on the way back, although the winding route was still a bit troublesome... Why can't ghosts fly?

It was nearly midnight when I got back to my accommodation.

Yuri found the knowledge servants who hadn't rested yet.

"Have you ever heard of such a spirit?" He tried his best to repeat what Kang Ying had described.

"No. Judging from its behavior, it should be a spirit that has mastered the method of devouring other spirits—but there are countless such spirits given their sheer number. As for changing its form... some spirits can transform, just like you can turn your hand into tentacles, but the transformation he described is on a very large and thorough scale." The unreliable knowledge expert thought for a while, indicating that his knowledge had reached its limit. "You haven't seen it with your own eyes, have you? I can't think of anything more."

“If all the familiar ghosts I didn’t find this time were eaten, then their area of ​​operation probably overlaps greatly with ours. And the ghosts I know don’t all live in the same area.” Yuri gestured roughly, indicating that the area of ​​the ghosts he knew and who had gone missing was roughly in a circle.

"When I go out for a stroll, I explore in circles. The area I've reached so far is only this small, and disappearances are happening frequently in this area. So it's also possible that the other person left a particularly thick trail. But wouldn't that cause a huge commotion?"

"Hmm, that might be a problem... Could there be a more powerful ghost missing?"

"There shouldn't be any, at least not many. I didn't see any chaos in those areas." Yuri realized what was happening. "You mean there's a problem?"

“Yes, and it’s a big problem. The ability to devour other spirits isn’t the rarest thing, but it’s rare for someone with such a huge appetite when they’re not very strong. I haven’t seen it with my own eyes, but it’s not normal for such a ferocious predator to suddenly appear in an area.” Mingmei added, “I’m not saying that these predators themselves are particularly rare, although they do often leave records. I’m saying that their sudden appearance without warning and their relatively weak strength is not normal. The few times I’ve heard of such a case, it was an ordinary spirit constantly devouring other spirits, its appetite growing larger and larger—but from what you’ve said, it seems that this one’s appetite was a bottomless pit from the start.”

"If Kang Ying wasn't lying, it consumes almost no energy when dealing with weaker spirits, so it's a bit strange that it keeps eating." It can't be still honing its abilities like me, can it?

"Do you think you'll be exhausted dealing with those... Shimoda and Yasushi... in short, those two ghosts mentioned this time?" Akemi closed her eyes, seemingly making a decision.

"...Why are you asking this?" It doesn't sound like you suspect me of what I did—no, a normal person wouldn't suspect me like that.

"Let's compare their strengths."

"Hmm... I'm not familiar with the newcomer, but if he's like Shimoda, the advantage might not be that big, but I can still win against two opponents with minimal effort." Yes, I tested that last time when I provoked Shimoda.

“Then let’s go look for him tomorrow night…we need to see this hunter for ourselves before deciding what to do.” Akemi opened her eyes and nodded. “I’ll help.”

"..."

Yuri didn't actually intend to deal with the hunter. Although having his friend involved would give him a better chance of success, it wouldn't be good to drag his friend into trouble for no reason.

"Don't worry about it. I'm also nervous about the fact that there's a particularly voracious spirit in the neighborhood. It may not necessarily be harmful to humans, but now that we know about it, we should see it as soon as possible."

Yuri's plan was simple: help Kang...Ying move his anchor point, get the spirit essence, and then leave—he could directly materialize and pick up the anchor point, just like he had picked up the piece of paper before.

Anyway, he already knew that the other party was not stronger than him—at least not by much.

—What problem could possibly arise from this?

Chapter Seven: Solo Operations and Encounters

Yuri arrived at the meeting place with Kang Ying the following day.

In fact, ghosts are not restricted by day or night, but there are more people during the day, so the existence of ghosts is harder to notice—for those who are not sensitive enough.

In fact, Yuri could have materialized and blended into the crowd, but Akemi begged him not to do it, saying, "If you're going to do that, at least wait until you can control the changes in your face freely."

Actually, I've had Akemi's face for a while now.

Kang Ying hid in the deepest part of the alley, trying to reduce her presence in this way. After Yuri tested it himself, he found that this could only avoid ordinary eyesight, but things like presence, spiritual energy, and sixth sense could not be avoided.

Upon seeing Yuri arrive, he was so nervous he nearly fainted—if ghosts could faint.

“You’ve finally arrived—it feels like an eternity has passed.”

It seems he arrived just in time; any later and he might have disintegrated on his own. "I underestimated the anxiety of someone who has gained a glimmer of hope but could lose it at any moment," Yuri told himself.

"Considering that it won't be difficult for me to help you move the anchor point—oh, you mean the token—I'll help you first, and then you'll pay me with spiritual essence. If you break the agreement, I'll smash your token and send you back to the underworld—do you understand?"

"Spiritual marrow? What is spiritual marrow?"

...I forgot to change this.

"It's what you call spiritual energy."

"Of course that's no problem."

Led by Kang Ying, Yuri found a stone that, whatever it originally looked like, had become smooth from the wind and sun.

"Is this the one?" Yuri did indeed sense the spiritual light emanating from the stone.

"That's right. Please take this to Beika Town next door and just find a quiet little place without too many ghosts to put it down."

"If I had known earlier, I could have helped Shimoda and the others move their positions too. What a pity." It's a pity I didn't have the chance to earn this spiritual essence.

“Shimoda… there’s nothing we can do. He’s bound to the entire alley.” The anxious ghost sighed silently. “I used to envy him. As long as humans’ impression of that alley hadn’t disappeared, he could always get some energy replenishment, while I had to keep causing trouble. But after the incident, he couldn’t run away. Who has the power to move the entire alley?”

Yuri materialized, then reached out and picked up the stone, putting it in his pocket.

—Hmm? Speaking of which, what's with this Akemi trench coat? Is it part of my body? Mimicry can even mimic clothes? (Yuri named his transformation Mimicry, a mechanism that simulates carefully observed humans.)

It's certainly a good thing not to be naked, but can we take off our clothes?

Yuri tried to take off his hat—and it came off easily.

Yuri tried to put the hat aside—and it came down easily.

Yuri tried to move a few steps to see if the hat would catch up—but was interrupted.

"Big sister! Please, could you move me to a different spot? Stop playing around!"

Right.

Carrying Kang Ying's stone, Yuri strolled leisurely down the street.

The materialized ghost could still float and move like a ghost, but Yuri forced himself to move forward step by step. Occasionally, when he didn't notice that he had started to float, the long hem of his trench coat effectively provided some obstruction. In this way, it was difficult for passersby to notice that his behavior was abnormal.

Although wearing that trench coat and sunglasses was already quite suspicious.

It would take several hours to walk to the next area. Besides being unfamiliar with the way to move, another problem was that I couldn't walk through walls, fly, run red lights, or... In short, I had to act like a human being. Moving in an inhuman way would either attract unnecessary attention or cause the keepsake in my pocket to fall out.

Ghosts cannot anchor themselves to non-physical objects—which is quite reasonable. To remain in the real world, one must establish a connection with it. No matter how many connections a ghost establishes with a material entity, it will not have the ability to make it stay in the real world.

That's true in theory, but theories only grow by being broken down time and time again, and to say that Yuri's theoretical knowledge is in its growth stage is already an exaggeration.

…………

I hadn't paid much attention to the city's general appearance before, but it seems quite developed, with very busy traffic on the main roads.

…………

Taking a leisurely stroll through the city when you have free time is a great way to relax.

…………

Unless you have a very impatient guy next to you who desperately wants you to get to your destination at the speed of light but doesn't dare to urge you on, so he just keeps circling around you!

Under the silent pressure, Yuri quickened his pace.

"Okay, okay, I'll get there as soon as possible. Don't look at me like that. -- Why don't you tell me some stories or rumors about this city? Tokyo... I don't know anything about it except that it's a big city."

“Okay—what I know is from many years ago. At that time, the crime rate in Tokyo was particularly high, with murders every day, many of which were over trivial matters. We heard that some kind of evil spirit was interfering with people and making them more prone to madness.”

"Is that true?" This certainly piqued Yuri's curiosity.

"I don't know. I've never seen an evil spirit, either in life or in death. I have heard that some ghostly companions can possess human bodies, but even so, there's no need to kill someone intentionally, right? Having finally obtained a new body, why would you so quickly cause trouble to change your situation back to normal?"

That makes sense. Besides, if we're talking about ghosts seeking revenge, there have to be other dead people first, so we can't blame everything on ghosts.

Upon hearing the police sirens, Yuri chose to quietly take a detour, clearly indicating that something had happened ahead and he wanted to avoid trouble.

The second convoy of police cars.

“I suspect the situation isn’t any better than it was years ago, as you described…” To avoid looking suspicious in front of the tense police officers with their stripes, Yuri changed his route twice. This required him to climb over a railing, and only upon landing did he realize that no one was there and he could float over. “The police are still on high alert, moving around aggressively.”

“I don’t know, ma’am. My area of ​​operation is only one street. And the police only come to this street about twice a month on average.”

How many streets are there in Tokyo? How did Akemi manage to evade the police? How come these police officers haven't died from overwork yet?

In any case, the two demons eventually managed to reach Beika Ward.

A small alleyway with no other smart ghosts... not easy to find, but the process is 80% complete.

"Are you sure you want to stay here? I'd love to finish my work as soon as possible and get paid, but if you're really not satisfied, I can find someone else." Having already gone to so much trouble, I might as well see it through.

“This is fine, or rather, it’s much better than I expected. Although the area is a bit small, there are many signs of children running around here,” Kang Ying said, explaining his plan.

"What are you going to do to the child?" That's not good. If you're planning to do something too extreme, the only thing we can do is throw you into the river.

"No, I just wanted to scare them a little, draw some words on the wall or something, I won't do anything real to them!" Perhaps Yuri's attitude was too obvious, Kang Ying hurriedly began to explain. "Just want to make my presence felt! Children are more likely to notice these marks, so places like this are good places."

That is not bad.

With Yuri placing the stone in the corner, the mission was complete.

Kang Ying obediently released the spiritual essence into the air, and Yuri tried his best to receive it before it dissipated. There were still some spiritual essences that he couldn't capture in time, but oh well, the amount he had already absorbed was not a loss.

After exchanging greetings, Yuri embarked on his journey home. His movement speed was much faster after becoming a spirit, and he no longer had to worry about being intercepted by ordinary people, so he chose the fastest route to travel.

In other words, you have to cross the crime scene that has just been discovered.

In fact, nothing went wrong; the crime scene was very "clean," with nothing hindering the movement of the virtual Yuri.

After a brief observation, it looked like someone had been stabbed and then struggled to run a few steps to this spot. Their belongings had been searched. If you looked closely—

Why should I look closely? The police will handle it. Even the Japanese police are doing their jobs.

It's strange, though. The person died so tragically and painfully, why didn't we even see a broken record? ... Speaking of which, that alleyway was supposed to be a good place for ghosts, but there were no traces of ghosts there either.

A thought flashed through Yuri's mind (assuming he was still using his brain to think): Could it be that the glutton had passed by?

After beginning to suspect this, Yuri found many signs pointing in this direction, but the evidence... if there was any, should have been swallowed up by now.

Yuri focused his attention, observing everything around him as he moved cautiously, which paid off handsomely—at the next street corner, he spotted the spirit's tentacles peeking out from around the bend, avoiding walking right under its nose.

Yuri quickly retreated, but before he could find a way around, the tentacle monster spotted him. Seeing that he wasn't moving forward, the tentacle monster showed no intention of negotiating and pounced straight out.

"You—" The other party did indeed have a large number of spiritual tentacles on their body, just as they had heard before—but one thing was wrong. It wasn't an octopus head, but tentacles were extending from every part of their simple clothes! If the witness hadn't only seen the tentacles peeking out from the collar when they first saw it, then something had changed in the last two days.

"—You thing! Hey, do you even have any intelligence? Are you even human?" Using the distance, Yuri easily dodged the outstretched tentacles, then tried to disturb the octopus monster in front of him. Ghosts are usually very sensitive about whether they are human or not; hopefully, this one is no exception.

"Food! Stop!" One piece of bad news is that the other party possesses the intelligence to speak. Another piece of bad news is that their words contain a pressure that could interfere with Yuri's actions.

After instinctively activating his protective barrier, Yuri immediately realized he was in trouble. He had never tested whether his barrier could block non-contact attacks before, and he had never had such an opportunity.

The good news is that the protective barrier didn't block the opponent's speech, but it did alleviate the pressure—does it even have that function? The bad news is that the opponent failed in one move, struggled out of the clothes, and transformed into a complete octopus monster. Slightly different from a real octopus, but almost identical to the octopus in the movies.

That's far from the truth—where did the octopus in the movie get so many tentacles?!

Moreover, in addition to being able to fly, it can also accelerate its charge by using a jet-like motion!

Caught off guard, Yuri's hand was entangled by a tentacle, but he quickly broke free—the octopus-like monster's tentacles didn't have suction cups, and the force generated by a single tentacle wasn't great through the protective barrier—and then fled in panic, because if he didn't escape, dozens of tentacles would entangle him.

"I need long-range firepower." Ignoring the octopus's shrieks, Yuri told himself loudly and intently.

"Good boy—get eaten!" The octopus seized the opportunity to extend its tentacles and wrap itself around the creature.

When he was first entangled, Yuri felt his spiritual essence draining away, but thankfully that feeling disappeared after he broke free. Perhaps if he were stronger, more capable, Yuri could fight this horde of tentacles head-on, but not now, not even with the protective barrier activated. Yuri tried to dodge, creating distance once more.

"I need long-range firepower!"

It struggled to shake off the charging tentacles, took a short breather in the corner, and then immediately sprang up to dodge again.

"I really need long-range firepower!"

As the octopus monster passed by, it grabbed a tape recorder and ate it, then continued charging forward. The tape recorder disappeared in just six seconds after being entangled by the tentacles.

In those precious six seconds, Yuri once again widened the distance. He had to admit defeat. If his ability was indeed related to his desires, he was clearly desperately craving ranged attack capabilities, which meant his ability was insufficient to do so—or perhaps he fundamentally misunderstood his own abilities—but now was clearly not the time to delve into academic matters.

Okay, let's regroup and acknowledge reality. Without reliable ranged attack methods, the tentacles' attack power is very low in close combat, but having your spiritual essence sucked out would be troublesome.

Spirits have no physical limitations, and there's no such thing as slowing down after running for a certain period of time, which is wonderful.

But the opponent didn't have one either, and their speeds were roughly the same, Yuri.

So, it's either I escape and you chase me until the end of the world, or one of us starves to death.

starve?